Congress Awaits Treasury Feedback on Outbound Investment Bill
The Treasury Department is expected in the near future to provide its input on legislation that lawmakers plan to propose again to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China, Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said Feb. 7.
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“I think it’s going to be pretty soon where we’re reintroducing something in both the House and the Senate,” Barr told Export Compliance Daily. “I want to just make sure that [Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent’s team gets a chance to get us their comments before we reintroduce.”
Barr, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, discussed outbound investment in a Capitol Hill meeting Feb. 3 with Bessent, who received Senate confirmation in late January (see 2501280006), and Michael Faulkender, who has been nominated to be deputy Treasury secretary. “They’re still getting up and running at Treasury, but they’re very aware of" the matter, Barr said.
Another new Treasury official, Derek Theurer, was involved in drafting the legislation in his previous role as a staffer to House Speaker Michael Johnson, R-La. “So they have a lot of institutional understanding of this,” Barr said. He noted that President Donald Trump directed Treasury on Jan. 20 to review Biden administration regulations on outbound investment (see 2501210023).
Barr said the House is working closely on the issue with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, another longtime advocate of outbound investment legislation.
A long-negotiated compromise on outbound investment, the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (Coins) Act, was included in the initial version of a temporary government spending measure, or continuing resolution, that Congress considered in December, but it was removed from the slimmed-down version that became law (see 2412180034 and 2412230038). Barr introduced the Coins Act as a stand-alone bill before the end of the last Congress and said he hopes to offer something similar in the new Congress.